Wow, I had absolutely no idea that Gainax had this planned until reading this post. To be honest, this makes me really happy. I always felt like they didn't quite have the right kind of budget for what they wanted to do the first time around; even when I was in junior high and watching it for the first time, I was actually disappointed with the animation quality. Just from the trailer they released for Rebuild, duuuude... it makes me warm and squishy just looking at it.

I really hope they can make things a bit tighter in the storyline; the manga always felt more fine-tuned, and I felt like I really got to know and connect with many of the characters more in-depth (mind you, this comes from someone who still hasn't seen the movies; I keep waiting to rewatch the whole series before doing so). However, I do hope that they don't change Kaworu's character very much; though I was intrigued by the choice Sadamoto made in his version -- and still have to read volume 10 to see how things really play out, as volume 9 was where I left off -- I guess what I appreciated so much of Kaworu's TV series alter-ego was his practically child-like fascination with everything. Including Shinji.

And just to get more off-topic, did anyone else know that Robin Williams was a big Eva fan? I entirely forgot that there was a scene in One Hour Photo in which his character was giving the Eva figurine to Jake; I should've remembered something like that!

Tamago wrote:

The last few episodes of the old Evangelion was to a great extent a big lot of WTF!, I hope that they don't repeat it this time.

Took me a while to get used to that, too. But I personally liked the movie ending from The End of Evangelion

I need to rewatch the series and finally watch the Death and Rebirth/End of Evangelion stuff before looking at the new movies.  I own it all, I just detested the end of the series so much that I couldn't bring myself to watch the EoE stuff.  That was 6 years ago if not more, so I suppose it's time to try again.  Now that I know what to expect, I might appreciate it a bit more.  After all, I was quite liking the series up until the last two episodes.  Kind of the opposite of Lain, where I wasn't liking the series, and then loved the last two episodes so much that I ended up liking the series as a whole.

Last edited by Cerise (07-20-2007 12:15:05 PM)

I'm getting a feeling I should really watch Evangelion. I guess I'll do that after I finish watching NANA. Curse you people for being able to make me watch so much good anime.

I keep saying that Evangelion, Lain, and Utena are the Holy Trinity of Thinking Anime. If you like one, you'll most likely enjoy the other two.

Now that I know what to expect, I might appreciate it a bit more.  After all, I was quite liking the series up until the last two episodes.  Kind of the opposite of Lain, where I wasn't liking the series, and then loved the last two episodes so much that I ended up liking the series as a whole.

It's interesting you say that about Lain, Cerise; I was pretty much the same way, except that the last two episodes really weren't enough for me to justify finishing that series. I had heard so much hype back in high school, "OMG, Lain is t3h awesome!!1111" that, when I finally got around to watching it just this last year, I was disappointed.

Perhaps I ended up expecting too much, as the "WTF?" to it in general was in the worst way possible for me. Not a "WTF this is totally awesome even though I have no clue what's going on" type of thing that makes you want to re-evaluate what you just watched. Like in Utena or Paranioa Agent. Or, another personal favorite, Rahxephon, which understandably gets a lot of comparisons to Eva.

Imaginary Bad Bug wrote:

There's another trinity that exists with the same concept... Lain, Boogiepop Phantom, and Paranoia Agent.

I can't help but dislike Boogiepop - great potential, so horribly misused. The novels are excellent, though.

As for Evangelion, you shouldn't let the ending of the series dissapoint you - while a far cry from conclusive, it gives a whole new angle to understanding the characters and as experimental anime, it's certainly interesting. However, I would warn you against Death & Rebirth - it's essentially a giant trailer for the End of Evangelion. About half of its footage is shared with the End and the rest comes from the series. The End of Evangelion, however, is once again excellent. I find it fun to seek mecha-genre's clichés both from the series and the movie. What especially amused me in the End was how the classical mecha transformation scene was handled - from giant robot to abstract God!
The surreal events and music are damn cool, in whole. Shinji's angsty hallucinations get a bit annoying, eventully but with everything else, I can bear with them.

As for the new movies, I don't dare to hope anything from them, just yet. They certainly look interesting, but they have just as great possibility to botch the series, as to revive it. I genuinely hope it's going to be the latter, ofcourse. It seems that the first movie has Kaworu, but Asuka is only going to appear in the second. That should certainly reform the chemistry between the characters, a bit...
The first movie comes out the 1st of September, though - not quite during the summer.

Last edited by Lightice (07-21-2007 08:05:09 AM)

Raven Nightshade wrote:

I keep saying that Evangelion, Lain, and Utena are the Holy Trinity of Thinking Anime. If you like one, you'll most likely enjoy the other two.

I found that Lain had too much of a WTF Factor for me to really enjoy it in terms of thinking about it and dissecting it critically, the way I have with Utena and Evangelion. 

Haibane Renmei, however, also by ABe, hits me much the same way that Utena hits me.  They're the only two anime to ever get tears out of me consistently, even on rewatching.  There's something visceral about both their themes, and I find HR intensely cathartic.

I liked Lain. It's a crying shame I don't have a Holy Trinity of Thinking Anime. That's probably because I don't really think about anime the same way I do about other things, but that's something else entirely. All of them have a huge WTF factor, and I'm pretty sure that kind of thing is exactly what inspires people to think about something in the first place.

tohubohu wrote:

Haibane Renmei, however, also by ABe, hits me much the same way that Utena hits me.  They're the only two anime to ever get tears out of me consistently, even on rewatching.  There's something visceral about both their themes, and I find HR intensely cathartic.

I very much agree. So far Haibane Renmei is the only other anime I can line up next to Utena. Thematically, they aren't exactly the same but there are so many parallels, especially near the end and how the whole thing gets resolved. There's quite a lot of symbolism too but most of it is very subtle and doesn't steal your attention like it does in Utena. I was deeply moved by Haibane Renmei, and it was a pleasant surprise since Utena had been the only other thing to affect me that way.

I liked Lain, especially after I rewatched it. Still, I love Haibane much more. At times, Lain is too dark and full of anxiety. It is also thematically quite different from both Haibane and Utena which, I think, is exactly why it's a bit harder to enjoy and relate to. I find it hard to describe Lain with just a single word, but 'beautiful' is the word best suited for both Haibane and Utena and this is also the reason why I love them so much.

...and I hereby nominate Haibane Renmei to be part of the Holy Trinity of Thinking Anime (I haven't seen Eva yet).

I am very excited about rebuild. The end of the series left me unhappy.

Allegoriest loves Angelic Days, which I find kinda strange. I refuse to read it solely because I do not want to like Asuka. I like being in my RAWR ASUKA bubble and don't want Asuka stuff everywhere.   I kinda want to read since it has much Kaworu-ness (Kaworu fangirl, like 99% of the eva fangirls out there, yeah). I kinda flipped through it and its really cute, but they don't feel like the same characters when they're all... normal-ish.

I dunno if I'm excited or not about a remake, but I don't want Kaworu touchin the kitties again.
I just kinda feels like one of those things they should just leave alone or something.



I can't really look at Utena and Evangelion in the same way.... I dunno. I like them both but they just don't really make me think in the same way I guess.